Islamic Party of Azerbaijan

The Islamic Party of Azerbaijan (AIP) was an Islamist political party in Azerbaijan that was active from 1991 to 1995. The party was founded in the conservative Shia town of Nardaran (to the northeast of Baku), and the party advocated stronger ties with Iran, the creation of an Islamic republic in Azerbaijan, a ban on proselytism and Christian missionaries, and a military solution to the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. The party also opposed the United States, Zionism, and the European Union, and it supported Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah. In 1995, the party was accused of being financed by Iran, and the party was banned that same year.